We have spent some time over the course of several class periods working through a speaking challenge I’m calling GRIDS/LES GRILLES. It has been a lot of fun and it has been an effective method to encourage students to use circumlocution if they don’t know a certain word.

Students were given a grid with 9 squares, a set of crayons, and a folder to hide their paper. I then described to them in detail what should go in each box of their grid, using various prepositions of location and adjectives to describe each item.

After modeling this example for the students where they had a blank grid and I had a completed grid (with the same picture in the center), I put them in partners and gave each partner one complete grid and one empty grid. The empty grids had the same picture in the center as their partner’s completed grid. They had to work through each grid together SPEAKING ONLY FRENCH.

As their homework assignment, I then asked each student to create a new set using vocabulary we have learned over the past two year. They were to email me their work. I then matched them into sets of two so that we could accomplish two each day with a partner. I think the students enjoyed the creativity and looked forward to the day we did their grids. It definitely got them back into the swing of French and served as a great vocab review too.

French Honors students are working on some sock puppets today. I’m proud of them for speaking French and working together as we designed doctors, nurses, moms, and patients in anticipation of writing skits on Tuesday where we will practice all of our health related vocabulary and verbs in command form.

French A (6th graders) practice the alphabet by rotating through various stations. In some stations they have to “write” the letter/accent they hear by drawing in rice or using wickie sticks, popsicle sticks, or play dough. At other stations they have to write it before their partner or find the correct card among many first.

French A students (6th grade) are practicing the French alphabet. Each student has a different master sheet with French names and they are helping each other practice spelling and understanding French letters.

The first “real” day of class for French A (6th grade). We had had a few short classes of 15 minutes already and today we are putting in practice some of our French greetings.

Today was the first day of normal classes in terms of length (45 minutes). In French A we were learning how to ask a person’s name, give your own name, and introduce a new person (in an informal situation). We used a variety of puppets to be the “new kid”. Here are some videos of our work.